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Graphic Design Tips & Tricks

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John McWade presents a series that touches on all areas of design, helping designers new and old sharpen their skills and create more powerful work.

Syllabus

Introduction
  • Welcome
The Best Practices of Graphic Design
  • Design a modern cover: Think simple, clean, and angular
  • Transform a product sheet: Put your words here, not there
  • Design a business card: Make it look like what it says
  • Double your artwork for free: Use the same picture twice
  • Design a ghosted logo: A picture always goes with itself
  • Design a business card using repetitive shape
  • Why round letters are bigger than straight ones
  • Design a powerful poster: Work with your photo, not against it
  • Design stationery that’s almost a brochure: Picture your product, not your logo
  • Alignment: Your ruler’s good only for regular things
  • Logo design: Think simple
  • Your design needs a focal point: Dramatic photo anchors a strong makeover
  • Chart your data with images
  • Make a beautiful logo with off-the-shelf type
  • How to transfer your look to a new format
  • Angles
  • The (very!) versatile art of the silhouette
  • Easy, functional one-line design
  • Signage: Consistency makes the brand
  • Elementals: How black, white, and gray make depth
  • A beautiful desk calendar you can make yourself
  • Lesson of the counterintuitive logo
  • How to design visual instructions
  • Design a beautiful CD package
  • Simple brochure presents your face to the public
  • Soften the edge
  • Small layout packs a big punch
  • Shape it: Part one
  • Shape it: Part two
  • A logo makeover: Part one
  • A logo makeover: Part two
  • Grid collage
  • People in a group on a grid
  • Magazine cover redesign
  • Designing cards with type alone
  • Designing a small-space advertisement
  • Designing a business card for a photographer
  • Designing names with type and basic shapes
  • Review of an outdoor sign logo
  • Creating a small multipage brochure
  • Designing with black, white, and gray
  • Gestalt techniques: Isomorphism
  • Redesigning a business card
  • How to put motion on a static page
  • The color wheel
  • Layout decision points
  • Designing a tiny brochure
  • Panoramic spacing
  • Multi-use format for a business card
  • The boring book cover challenge: Part 1
  • The boring book cover challenge: Part 2
  • The single space practice
  • Incorporating hairlines into your design
  • Close enough with color choice
  • More design techniques with grids
  • Lanzarote calendar assignment
  • Foreground focal point
  • Stop, look, observe
  • Working with a rule of thumb (dynamic) grid
  • The humble power of negative space
  • Go with the flow
  • Learning by doing
  • For the love of design!
  • The boring book cover challenge, part 3
  • Bold moves
  • Simply beautiful
  • Common but versatile looks
  • Audacious philanthropy
  • Simple slides
  • Every face has a place
  • Those little extras
  • Seeing sight lines
  • Swiss style grids, part 1
  • Swiss style grids, part 2
  • Poetic type
  • Visual continuity
  • Find your balance
  • Procrastiworking with album covers
  • Looking around: Why it works
  • Don't fake it
  • Find the focal point
  • Tooth and texture
  • Small and simple
  • Design challenge: Dino Water
  • Looking around: Address the audience
  • Experimenting with borders
  • Magazine layout triple threat
  • Product ad comparison
  • Lanzarote calendar assignment: Revisited
  • Rewind: Simply beautiful
  • Rewind: Seeing sight lines
  • Find your center with typefaces
  • Maki poster, part 1
  • Maki poster, part 2
  • Quick look: Decoded wallet case
  • A type of luxury
  • Quick look: Saltwater restaurant
  • Quick look: Nick's Cove
  • Less is more: Book covers
  • Less is more: Notices
  • Less is more: Posters
  • Movement in design
  • The British Academy: Logo
  • The British Academy: Type
  • The British Academy: Grid
  • Quick look: Teavana rock sugar
  • Ask John: Authentic advice
  • Blue Note: Donald Byrd album cover
  • Blue Note: Caddy Daddy, Part 1
  • Blue Note: Caddy Daddy, Part 2
  • Blue Note: Caddy Daddy, Part 3
  • Ask John: Finding your passion
  • It's all in the details: Lineweights
  • Paper flyer redesign
  • Set a headline with Gossamer
  • Ask John: New business logo
  • A new type: Helvetica Now
  • In detail: Line values
  • Typographic silence
  • Rebranded: Uber
  • Capture connection with authenticity

Taught by

John McWade

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4.9 rating at LinkedIn Learning based on 894 ratings

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